Conventional stitch bonded textile fabrics are well known in the art. They are produced by bonding together the fibers of a fleece by means of a plurality of columns of stitches. If envisioned in terms of conventional woven textiles with warp threads and weft threads, the plurality of stitch columns constitute the warp yarns and the bundle of fibers encompassed within an individual stitch and adjacent stitches in the weft direction constitute the weft yarns.
The advantage of such a fabric is that it is composed almost entirely of weft-wise oriented staple fibers laid down in a fleece, which are much less expensive than spun or filament yarns or thread. The only yarns present are those in the columns of stitches. Stitch bonded fabric can also be produced more rapidly than by weaving or knitting.
There are several disadvantages of stitch bonded fabrics that limit its use and which virtually exclude it from use in apparel except, on occasion, as a liner material for suit coats and the like.
One such disadvantage is a low weft-wise strength or stability, which is attributable to a relatively poor binding power between the stitch loops and the weft-wise bundles of fibers that run through such loops. When the fabric is subjected to a weft-wise tension, the fiber bundles tend to slip through the loops, with a resultant distortion of the fabric.
Another disadvantage is a low resistance to pilling, again attributable to the poor binding power between stitch loops and fibers in the weft-wise bundles. Individual fibers pull out of the bundle and pill on the surface of the fabric.
A further disadvantage is that the fabric has poor draping characteristics. This is the result of the relatively large length of the stitches which, in turn, create relatively large diameter weft-wise bundles of fibers. These coarse bundles are relatively stiff, thereby resisting drape folds parallel to the warp-wise stitches.